Hulstrian National Party
. The Nationale Partei (National Party) is a right-wing political party in the Imperial Crownlands of Greater Hulstria. The National Party generally supports conservatism, federalism, and moderate isolationism. History Background Devolutionist conservative thought in Hulstria started to gain prominence among scholarly groups in the Crownland of Budenlar during the early 2700s. Previously, centralization had been associated with conservatism, while devolutionism was commonly associated with moderates. Additionally, some academics and politicians in Hilgar began speaking favorably of more restrictive international involvement. Non-interventionism in wars had been commonly associated with the far more moderate groups in Hulstria, but conservatives in Hilgar began formulating their own, mostly economic, reasons to oppose war, open borders, and free trade. By the 2710s, this political movement had receded into the background as these scholarly groups remained obscure among mainstream circles. This changed with the emergence of Hans Strauss whose seminal academic book, The Costs of War (published 2730), brought serious conservative isolationist thought into the mainstream. While previously parties such as the Fascist Authority Party had generally supported isolationist stances, the growing tendency for the FAP to support interventionism in areas such as New Englia during the New Englia crisis drew criticism from these conservative groups who had finally found a valid voice in Strauss. Seminal works in devolutionism became publicly known after the publication of Joseph Karcher's academic essay, Freedom and Federalism in 2760 and the later 2764 ideological manifesto On Nationalism and Freedom, which gave critical in-depth insight to the foundation of Karcher's philosophy. Hans Strauss considered himself a traditionalist conservative: he opposed moral relativity, communism, and republicanism. But Strauss was puzzled by his disagreements with other prominent conservative movements in Hulstria. While Strauss generally agreed with these conservatives on major social and some economic issues, he was at odds with the their general support for mandatory national military service and interventionist foreign policy. War, according to Strauss, was a moral evil. But not only was war a moral evil; it was something could be avoided altogether given a strict non-interventionist foreign policy. But Strauss needed empirical evidence to persuade other conservative commentators. These philosophers generally held the Just War theory to be a valid justification for interventionism. Strauss spent the next five years of his life writing and rewriting a political thesis to refute the Just War theory. The resulting work was the seminal volume, The Costs of War. The book drew influence from ethical theories such as utilitarianism as well as economic theory such as marginalism to support its claims. Joseph Karcher was a young political scientist and prominent attorney in the Crownland of Hulstria. He was generally very vocal in his pro-devolution, pro-monarchy views. Karcher disseminated pamphlets, aired television ads, and wrote newspaper editorials on the subject from 2758 to 2763. He was a common target for satire among many Hulstrian comedians and late night hosts, despite the fact he was garnering supporters. Politically, Karcher had aligned himself with the KHP, but loathed the party's unitarist slant. But the party's moderate isolationism and strong conservatism swayed him to remain a registered member. It was not until 2763 that Karcher decided to run for political office. He campaigned vigorously to be a Hulstria Crownland representative to the Imperial Diet. Karcher won two successful bids in 2763 and 2766. But comments regarding the KHP in late May 2766 earned Karcher's disbarment from the party's national committee. Karcher had made public comments that were considered extremely xenophobic and racist concerning immigration reform in Hulstria. Karcher favored intensive border control with invasive security checks to discourage visitors. He supported a national origins quota system regarding immigration. Finally, Karcher had voiced his opposition to the admittance of the free Mormon city of Moroni back into the Imperial Crownlands. Karcher greatly chastized the KHP's unwillingness to tackle these issues much more vocally and seriously. While many KHP members agreed with some of Karcher's remarks, the party was quick to remove Karcher from the national committee. Karcher served as an independent from 2766-2769 as a result. Karcher and Strauss's protege, John Westmoreland, joined forces in 2763 with the creation of the Hulstrians for a New Tomorrow political action committee. Strauss himself was too old to actively campaign, thus he passed the torch on to Westmoreland, who had been advised by Strauss during the writing of his doctoral thesis at the University of Labsburg. In addition to the HfNT, the group distributed pamphlets among universities and residential neighborhoods detailing the group's beliefs and suggesting candidates to elect to the local and federal legislature. Generally, independent conservatives or members from the KHP or FAP were recommended as viable choices. But things began to change by 2769. Karcher had already been alienated from the KHP, and the FAP was swinging towards more centralization and unitarism in government policy. Additionally, both the KHP and FAP had both supported Hulstria-Vorona Security and Defense Agreement in 2755, making some hardliners from both parties question the direction of their parties. In 2769, Karcher announced the formation of the Hulstrian National Party to support isolationism, devolutionism, and conservatism. Many independents and disaffected FAP/KHP members immediately joined, but the party's base remained small. No seats were won in the 2770 elections. Rise of the National Party The National Party campaigned vigorously during the 2770-2773 term. They distributed tens of thousands of pamphlets and fliers to citizens in both urban and rural areas. The party formalized an organized hierarchical structure in 2771. The chairman, to be democratically elected by the party cabinet and regional chairman, would head the party and serve as the Governor-General candidate. His second-in-line would be the Staatsminister candidate, the deputy chairman. The deputy chairman was proposed by the Governor-General and validated by the remaining party cabinet members. Party cabinet members were elected by all registered Nationals to serve at least four terms. By the September 2773 elections, Karcher had agreed to form a political alliance with the Christian Liberals in order to advance devolutionist policies. In order to be able to secure the national cabinet, the Nationals reluctantly (after a slim vote) agreed to allow the Mormon Socialist Party to enter the NP-CLA coalition. The Nationals won 111 seats in their first election, backing Lukas Adenauer from the CLA for the Governor-General. They entered the cabinet, holding the ministries of finance, defense, health and social services, and trade and industry. Karcher had hoped that securing these positions would allow the Nationals to advance their own political agenda further. A New Era The Nationals lost 20 seats in the following 2776 elections, and John Westmoreland resigned from his position in the party cabinet as foreign affairs expert. However, with one full election term under their belt, the Nationals prepared to extensively push for new legislation to solidify their party's base. Previously, the Nationals had shown to be moderately conservative, but with the passage of several laws granting rights to homosexuals, the National Party went on the offensive. The National Party began to push an agenda of hard line social conservatism, tempered with their already devolutionist policies. Isolationism, which had mostly been put on hold during the 2773-2776 term, was reintroduced as viable legislation to propose. Currently, the party supports pro-devolution and moderate to hard line social conservative policies. Policies The National Party intends to provide a voice for the anti-imperialist, protectionist, pro-devolution wing of the conservative movement in Hulstria. The Nationals have consistently supported tariffs and opposed free trade agreements and expansion of federal powers. The Nationals vary from moderate libertarian-conservatism to far-right conservatism, depending on the issue. *Abortion: The NP is staunchly pro-life and believes abortion should only be allowed in extreme circumstances involving rape, incest, and threats to maternal health. *Adoption: The NP believes that only heterosexual singles and couples should be allowed to adopt. The Nationals favor a highly-regulated adoption system that ensures the newly adopted child will be well-cared for. *Budget: The NP favors a small national budget concentrating on education, trade, and industry. The NP opposes deficit spending. *Capital punishment: The NP supports capital punishment for murder, rape, crimes against humanity, pedophilia, treason, and terrorism. *Conscription: The NP strongly opposes compulsory national service and the peacetime draft. *Defense: The NP strongly opposes Hulstrian involvement in foreign conflicts and the expansion of the military budget. The Nationals believe the police and military should remain separate. While the Nationals have shown lukewarm support for restricting the usage of biological and chemical weapons and landmines, the NP believes Hulstria should have the right to develop and use nuclear weaponry. Additionally, the Nationals support treating prisoners of war according to national laws, rather than abiding by international standards. The NP also supports a "don't ask, don't tell" policy concerning homosexuality in the military, believing that actively attempting to remove homosexuals is a waste of time and resources. *Economics: The NP officially aligns itself with capitalism, but favors federal regulation in certain areas (such as drinking water quality, food safety and licensing) or local regulation (such as allowing local governments to regulate working hours). *Education: The NP supports a well-funded public education system with a strong private sector alternative. In accordance with their pro-decentralization platform, the NP supports delegating issues of sexual education, teacher-led prayer, and discipline levels to individual schools. While the Nationals support a public system for primary and secondary schools, the NP believes local governments should regulate and fund pre-school education, colleges, and vocational schools. The Nationals support a national university system, however. *Environment and Alternative Energy: The NP supports allowing local governments to craft policies concerning environmental protection and the funding of research and development of alternative energy. *Euthanasia: The NP believes euthanasia should be illegal and considered murder. *Extradition: The NP is strongly against extraditing citizens of the state. *Freedom of expression: The NP strongly supports the citizen's right to freedom of expression including hate speech, slander by private individuals against public figures, and the publication of communist/republican writings. However, the party notes that while republicans and communists should be allowed to express their opinions, they should still be carefully monitored because radicalism often leads to subversion and treason. *Gun politics: The NP favors liberalizing laws concerning gun ownership by reducing strict licensing and simply barring mentally unstable or convicted criminals from owning guns. The NP believes concealed carry laws should be handled locally, and that certain weapons should not be owned by the general populace (machine guns, for example) while others should be freely available for purchase (hand guns, for example). *Health care: The NP supports a private health care system, while fully or partially subsidizing the costs for low-income citizens. *Immigration: The NP supports a national origins system, with quotas regulating how many foreigners may reside in the nation at any given time. The NP favors actively searching for and expelling illegal immigrants from the nation. *Monarchism: The NP generally favors increasing the Monarchy's role in the government. *Privacy: The NP strongly opposes national identity cards, nationally recorded citizens' DNA, and the invasion of citizens' privacy. *Recreational drug policy: The NP is generally lenient concerning recreational drugs. The NP supports local governments' right to determine the legality and regulation of recreational drugs including but not limited to cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco. The NP believes cannabis is a "promising" medical alternative, but further research needs to be conducted before the NP supports federally legalizing medicinal cannabis rather than delegating its legality to local governments. *Religion: The NP believes religion, specifically Christianity, is vital. The NP thus favors higher government interaction with religious affairs, while still supporting freedom of religion. The NP opposes mandatory membership in the State Church. *Same-sex marriage: The NP officially opposes same-sex marriage, but supports local governments' right to determine its legality. *Social welfare: The NP generally supports two options concerning social welfare policies. It will either support delegating these responsibilities to local governments or providing assistance to low-income individuals. For example, the NP believes child benefits should only be given to low-income or large families. *Taxation: The NP supports a progressive income tax, but with low rates for all brackets. The NP also supports a 0% tax on corporations and luxury items. *Trade: The NP favors the usage of tariffs to protect vital domestic industries and emerging 'infant industries.' The party supports the placement of reciprocal tariffs when other nations place tariffs on Hulstrian imports. The NP is generally skeptical of free trade agreements. *Trade unions and strikes: The NP supports voluntary trade unions. The NP supports the ban on democratic workers' councils and secondary strike action. The Nationals support barring certain areas that are critical to society from the right to strike. The NP believes employers should be able to freely fire striking employees. Factions It is important to note that while the "Isolationists" and "Devolutionists" are in fact two factions within the National Party, many party members and elected representatives in fact fall into both groups. They are not factions in that they are opposing ideologies within the party. They are factions in that they consider their issue to be more important than the other faction's. Thus many isolationists also favor devolution, but believe reformation of Hulstrian foreign policy to be a far more pressing issue than devolution of powers to local governments. Isolationists These National Party members rank isolationism and non-interventionism as their primary issue. Conservatives dissatisfied with FAP/KHP/BZH foreign policy stances found themselves at home in the National Party. Generally, the isolationists oppose free trade, favor a national origins quota system, and oppose the offensive use of the Hulstrian military. They are a majority group. Devolutionists These National Party members consider devolution of powers to local government to be the most important issue. While they strongly support the monarchy, they also support the local autonomy of each Crownland and their right to develop social and economic policy compatible with their own cultures and lifestyles. Thus while they believe the monarchy should have a more prominent role in the central government's activities, they simultaneously believe the central government should have less of a role in the activities of local governments. They are a majority group. Moderate Conservatives The National Party's general support for the legalization of medicinal cannabis and recreational drugs, its opposition to compulsory military service, its opposition to a militarized national police force, and its opposition to mandatory national identity cards has drawn some support from moderate conservatives. These conservatives form the more right-wing factions in the CLA and BZH, and the more liberal factions in the KHP. However, given the National Party's strong conservatism regarding homosexuality, sexual education, abortion and euthanasia, and the death penalty, some moderate conservatives may find themselves not at ease with the National Party. They are a minority group. Hard line Conservatives The National Party vigorously supports a more inclusive role in the head of state for the monarchy. It has also shown to be extremely conservative on issues concerning law and order and sexual/religious issues. The National Party's general opposition to mandatory sex education and secularism has garnered support from hard line traditionalists. However, like the moderate conservatives, some hardliners will be disappointed with some National Party policy stances. For example, the Nationals only support a don't ask, don't tell policy concerning homosexuality in the military, citing the futility in attempting to actively seek out gays in the military. The Nationals also showed some support towards the devolution of same-sex marriage laws to local governments. Thus some hardliners would be at odds with the National agenda. Hardliners may also be at odds with the Nationals over some economic and devolution issues. The Nationals generally favor deregulation in the marketplace more than the KHP and FAP, and their strong devolution bent contravenes the generally unitarist FAP and KHP positions that many hard liners support. They are a minority group.